| | | | The following information has been adapted from a pamphlet on Papaya
Leaves, written by Virginia Robertson. It is so compelling that we decided
we needed to share it with everyone. If by the 4th paragraph you are not
compelled to continue reading, then I apologize for wasting your time
today.
- Cary James Heather, CEO, ZooScape.com
* These
statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). Products are intended to support general well being and are not
intended to treat, diagnose, mitigate, prevent, or cure any condition or
disease. If conditions persist, please seek advice from your medical
doctor.
Role of papain in treating a variety of
maladies
One of my first realizations that there might be
something to the aforementioned claim came about when I read an
interesting clinical study performed to discover what percentage of cancer
patients around the world used alternative therapies, what therapies were
used, and what the effect was overall. Papaya tea was on the list of
regular complementary and alternative therapies (CAM) in 14
countries.
I found out why when I began doing research on enzymes.
An enzyme is a biological catalyst - like in a car, a "starter" or
"igniter" - that can bring about a change without changing itself. Your
body has over 3,000 enzyme catalysts that have been given
names.
The papain enzyme, found in both the papaya fruit and its
leaves, has a special function, which is to break up proteins. Digesting
proteins is a role our pancreas usually performs pretty well until we're
about 25 years old. Then things tend to kind of get backed up. The primary
reasons are that we eat dead food (which overworks our pancreas) and don't
eat enough raw fruits and vegetables, so that by the time we hit our
mid-twenties, we have bodies full of toxins, and habits that only make
things worse.
The depleting effect that diet has on the enzymes our
bodies produce was a subject of research done in the mid 1940s by Dr.
Edward Howell, who was later interviewed by raw-food advocate Victoras
Kulvinskas for a book the latter was writing, "Food Enzymes for Health and
Longevity." When asked how serious a strain our diet of mostly cooked food
placed on our "enzyme bank," Dr. Howell replied, "I believe it's one of
the paramount causes of premature aging and early death. I also believe
it's the underlying cause of almost all degenerative disease. The
"stealing" of enzymes from organs such as the brain, heart, lungs and
muscles to service the overburdened digestive tract, he maintained, "sets
up a competition for enzymes among the various organ systems and tissues
of the body. The resulting metabolic dislocations may be the direct cause
of cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes and many other chronic
incurable diseases. This state of enzyme deficiency stress exists in the
majority of persons on the civilized, enzyme-free diet."
Papain can
help us overcome this deficiency, particularly when working in tandem with
all of the other ingredients in the papaya leaf. That in essence is why
papaya leaf tea can make your body begin to function again like that of a
healthy young person.
The papain enzyme, like your pancreatic
enzymes, is a protein-eater and can substitute for a weak pancreas. By
helping you to digest proteins from your food, it keeps them from forming
toxic matter in your intestines.
'Frequently, papain is included in
prescription combinations of digestive enzymes to replace what individuals
with cystic fibrosis or pancreas conditions cannot produce naturally.
Because it improves digestion in general, papain has also been used orally
to treat less serious digestion disorders such as bloating and chronic
indigestion.'
www.drugdigest.org
Digestive disturbances are not
the only conditions that papain has been known to help alleviate. It may,
for instance, reduce postoperative swelling, expedite healing from
injuries and help relieve the pain and inflammation of rheumatoid
arthritis. It has also proven effective as a treatment for psoriasis and
cold sores caused by Herpes zoster virus, warts and ringworm, and in
removing dead tissue from burned skin, a result of its ability to break
down proteins. (1)
As if all that weren't enough, it is used in
many countries both to treat and help prevent malaria. In fact, according
to the global hunger fighting organization ECHO, a hospital in Zimbabwe,
located in an area where malaria is a serious problem, began using papaya
leaf tea a number of years ago and reported that those taking it did not
come down with the disease (although admittedly this claim is anecdotal).
(2)
Probably the most difficult part of doing research on the use
of papaya leaves around the world is that the leaves (as well as other
parts of the plant) have so many varied medicinal uses and that is
probably why they are not as well known specifically for their impressive
cancer-fighting properties.
Are papaya leaves really an
effective treatment for cancer?
It may be hard to believe, but
nearly a century ago, a Scottish embryologist, Dr. John Beard, developed a
theory that pancreatic enzymes defend the body against cancer cells, which
he explored in a book called "The Enzyme Treatment of Cancer and its
Scientific Basis". Beard had been studying placentas, and noted how a
placenta seems to invade the uterus in a manner not unlike a tumour, but
stops growing once the fetal pancreas begins to work. From that
observation, he extrapolated that pancreatic enzymes might have a similar
effect on cancer itself. In subsequent experiments with both animal and
human subjects, he showed that juices extracted from the pancreases of
young animals and injected into patients with malignant tumours could, in
fact, effectively shrink them.
When other physicians tried to
duplicate the work, however, they were less successful - probably because
they failed to follow his procedure, which was to extract enzymes from
young animals and inject them while they were still fresh. As a result, Dr
Beard's theories were largely dismissed and fell into obscurity - that is,
until the 1960s when Dr. William Donald Kelley, a Texas dentist, cured
himself of usually fatal pancreatic cancer using the Beard approach, then
went on to develop his own nutritionally based cancer therapy that was
reported to be highly effective in patients whose immune systems had not
been totally destroyed by chemotherapy and other conventional treatments.
It was Dr. Kelley's belief that cancers originated with primordial germ
cells that are able to invade normal tissue at places in the body that
have been compromised by stress or toxic exposure where they encounter no
resistance from the immune system, and that pancreatic enzymes could
effectively reduce or eradicate them. (3)
Both Dr. Beard's and Dr.
Kelley's ideas have also been adapted by Dr. Nicholas Gonzelez, who
developed a detoxification regimen that includes a freeze-dried porcine
pancreatic enzyme administered in capsule form. (4)
Essentially,
what pancreatic enzymes do is to digest protein - which is what enables
them to destroy cancer cells. But cancer creates its own weapons to
eradicate these enzymes and when one's pancreas is already weakened, a
malignancy can easily overwhelm it. To quote Dr. Kelley, "a pancreas that
cannot metabolize protein cannot protect the body from cancer."
(5)
Studies done of mice that had been inoculated with malignant
tumours and treated with enzyme therapy at different times, have
demonstrated just how effective such treatment can be in preventing cancer
from metastasizing. The first set was given enzymes at stage four cancer
after tumour removal; 30 percent survived. The second set was given
enzymes at the onset of cancer; their survival rate was 60 percent. The
third set was given enzymes prior to the introduction of cancer, and 100
percent of them survived. Such research should serve to indicate the
importance of enzyme supplementation as part of an anticancer regimen.
(6)
The enzyme found in the papaya leaf, papain, is a
protein-eating substance that can perform the same function as pancreatic
enzymes. It can compensate for a weak pancreas if you have cancer or help
to prevent cancer by digesting proteins from your food so that they do not
go undigested and become toxic in your intestines. According to one study,
in fact, "papain will digest most protein substrates more extensively than
the pancreatic proteases." (7)
The importance of papaya leaves as a
cancer-fighting agent is further accentuated by the fact that of 3,000
enzymes identified by scientists, there are only two created by natural
plants and fruits that specialize in eating away the fibrous coating, or
protein armour, that forms around cancer cells via a process called
proteolysis. These specialty enzymes, known as "proteolytic," or protein
eating enzymes, are papain and bromelain. Bromelain is found in the core
of the pineapple. Of these two it is the papain from papaya leaves that
has been most widely used both culturally and historically to successfully
treat various cancers.
Specifically how does this enzyme work to
inhibit malignant growth?
As the process is explained in the
journal, The Doctor's Prescription for Healthy Living, "Formation of
fibrin (protein) on the tumour cell membrane serves as a protective
barrier against tumour cell recognition by the immunological system.
Proteolytic enzymes (like papain) inhibit both excess fibrin deposition
and inflammation, thus helping to prevent the spread of tumour cells."
(8)
The fallacies that have caused many doctors to ignore
papain's cancer fighting ability
As I discovered, however, many
conventional practitioners are apt to dismiss the whole concept of oral
enzyme therapy for cancer based on a premise they learned in medical
school, which has since been shown to be fallacious. I only found out
about it because I really needed to understand why my mother's doctors
didn't recommend enzyme therapy when the information, the science and the
clinical studies were all there to show that it really works.
What
I learned was that we need to give these doctors a bit of a break - at
least, the ones here in North America who are older than 45. That's
because the textbooks that they studied told them that enzymes are great
for digestion, but they are simply too big to make it through the
intestinal wall, so enzymes taken by mouth therefore could not work. It
was only within the last 25 years that scientists proved this hypothesis
to be incorrect (and most doctors, it should be noted, are human too and
just don't have the time to take refresher courses or keep up with all the
latest developments in medicine in every area).
Steve Hefferon
explains on the Health Guidance Web site,
Proteolytic enzymes,
also referred to as "proteases," are enzymes that break down proteins into
their smallest elements. If this breakdown of proteins happens in your
gut, we call the enzymes "digestive" because they help us digest our food.
Systemic proteolytic enzymes, however, have a completely different
purpose, so please don't confuse the two. When taken on an empty stomach,
proteolytic enzymes will pass through the stomach or intestine lining and
enter the circulatory system. This is why they are called "systemic". Once
they enter the circulatory system, they circulate throughout the body."
(9)
Just how far behind the informational curve physicians can
be on such matters is exemplified by an experience I had one Saturday at
my business upon discovering that a customer of mine happened to be a
doctor. I asked him his credentials, and when he told me that he was on
the board of directors of a homeopathic enterprise, that really aroused my
curiosity. "So," I inquired, "Do you know of papain?" "Yes", He replied,
"That is the protein-eating enzyme". I then asked him what the chances
were that papain could be used to successfully treat cancer. His response
was one of disdain. "Horse manure!" he declared. "The enzymes won't make
it past your stomach." I smiled. Information science had paid off. I told
him how scientists have now proven that enzymes can make it past the
stomach and through the intestinal wall. My little "seminar" with him
ended up lasting about an hour, at the end of which he asked me to please
e-mail him all of my data.
Now, however, we face a new challenge -
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved oral enzymes
for cancer therapy. Doctors in America can't recommend or prescribe what
is not FDA approved. European doctors can, however, and now do. The drug
companies, though, won't be interested in paying for clinical studies
unless there is money in it for them and one can't patent a leaf, unless
it's sufficiently altered to make it an "original" formula.
Then
there are those "experts" who have attempted to dismiss the effectiveness
of the enzyme action of papaya tea based on the conventional scientific
claim that enzymes "die" at 114 degrees Fahrenheit. In actuality, papain
has proven to be an exception, especially in the presence of water, with
optimum activity at 150 degrees F, perfect for tea. Proof that papain's
effectiveness survives high temperatures is shown by the fact that, when
used as a meat enderizer, it continues to tenderize after
cooking.
But the best anecdote I've seen reflecting the tendency of
conventional medicine to keep cancer patients unaware of the potential
benefits of this therapy (and one that helped motivate me to write this
booklet) is the story about Hope Clinic founder Dr. Ernesto Contreras. Sr.
Contreras, a believer in enzyme therapy, started the clinic for cancer
victims that the rest of the medical world had given up on. He had to
endure years of being called a quack, but with persistence, succeeded in
demonstrating that the process of curing cancer is not just about killing
a tumour, but is a matter of "whole healing" involving the spirit, mind
and body. Then, late in his career, after having survived decades of
disdain from the medical establishment, he had an interesting patient
visit his clinic. As his son recounted the story, "...a renowned
oncologist came to visit my father. He explained that he had cancer and
was looking for someone to treat him. My father asked him, "Why not take
the chemotherapy that you have prescribed to your patients over the past
30 years?" The doctor responded, "But this is me we are talking about,
Ernesto!" This cancer specialist's experience treating thousands of cancer
patients had taught him that chemotherapy alone was not going to cure him.
He came to my father looking for an integrative approach."
(10)
Some 'anecdotal evidence' of the power of papain in
treating cancer
Whenever practitioners of conventional wisdom
wish to downplay evidence that something can bring about some either
desired or undesired effect, they'll refer to it as "anecdotal" (as
opposed to "scientific"). In this article, I've attempted to tell you a
little about the science involved in the use of papaya leaf enzyme in the
treatment of cancer. Now I'd like to present you with a few examples of
the "anecdotal" evidence of its effectiveness:
- In one case, a
40-year-old banana grower had undergone two operations for bladder cancer,
but they did not prevent the cancer from metastasizing. He was then placed
on a very simple diet consisting of fresh, living foods with no
preservatives, no white flour, no sugar, no colorings and no additives,
and was told to stuff a handful of papaya leaves into a saucepan filled
with water, boil them, simmer for one hour and "drink it till it comes out
of your ears." Five weeks later, he reportedly had no trace of cancer
whatsoever. (11)
- In another case, an elderly woman in Britain,
suffering from bowel and stomach cancer, had been sent home to die. Having
been given no chance of recovery, she was provided with papaya leaves that
had been ground in a coffee grinder and told to brew them into a tea,
which she drank regularly. Her cancer vanished without a trace.
(12)
- Next is the case of a 74-year-old woman with bladder cancer.
Surgery had been unable to remove the cancer completely. During a period
of 3 months, this woman used papaya leaves. After running out of papaya
leaves, she began to use the papaya skin by boiling it. After going back
to her doctor for a check-up, the doctor's diagnosis was that the cancer
had been eradicated, and this result was confirmed by a subsequent medical
examination 4 months later. This 74-year-old woman now reports feeling
100% better and she insists her experience proves papaya can promote
recovery from cancer. (13)
Papaya leaf tea: the basic
essentials
By now, there are some questions about papaya leaf
tea that you'd undoubtedly like to have answered. For instance, are there
people who shouldn't drink it?
The answer is yes - the same ones
who are advised against taking any proteolytic enzymes. According to Steve
Hefferon of the Health Guidance Web site, the following people should not
take consume papaya in any form:
- Individuals taking prescription
blood thinners (Coumadin, Heparin, Plavix);
- Anyone who will be having
surgery in less than two weeks;
- Individuals with known ulcers of the
stomach;
- Individuals with gastroesophageal reflux disease.
(GERD);
- Pregnant or lactating women;
- Individuals currently
taking antibiotics, and;
- Individuals with an allergic reaction to
pineapples or papayas. (14)
Then there's the question of how safe
papaya is for people other than those listed above, and whether it has any
side effects. "Proteolytic enzymes have an excellent safety record, with
no significant side effects reported," notes Hefferon. But, as with
anything, he advises that their use be discontinued in the event that an
allergic reaction ensues. (15)
Finally, how should papaya leaves be
brewed and how often should it be consumed? According to the organization
ECHO, in countries where it is used as a malaria preventive it is
recommended that it be taken regularly on a twice-a-week schedule, as
follows: "Use one fresh leaf which you boil in 2 liters of water. Let it
boil a short time and let it rest for some minutes. Drink 1/4 of a cup
each time. It is bitter, but it is not poisonous. You should not eat the
raw leaves, however."
The leaves are also available in Cut or
powder form, a quarter teaspoon of which will make one cup of tea.
(16)
Why papaya tea instead of a papain pill?
At this
point, some readers may be convinced of the benefits of papain but are
wondering why it's necessary to have to ingest it as tea brewed from
papaya leaves. Wouldn't it be simpler to take it in capsule
form?
Papain pills, in fact, are readily available. The enzyme is
drawn out of the papaya tree by slicing the trunk and draining out the
milky sap, which is dried and then made into pills. So why not forget the
papaya leaf tea and just take the papain pill?
The reason that I
personally believe in using tea made from the natural leaf is that there
is more to the leaf than just papain and that the synergistic interaction
of papain with other substances in the leaf may substantially contribute
to its cancer-fighting and therapeutic properties. As powerful as papain
can be by itself, the papaya leaf is also a source of riboflavin, or
Vitamin B2, which is required for various cellular processes and plays a
key role in energy metabolism, as well as beta carotene, Vitamin E, and
potassium - substances that our diet seems to lack in the quantities we
really need. (17) While the way enzymes work remains largely a mystery, we
do have some clues that to achieve maximum effectiveness, they require the
presence of nutritional "accomplices" (such as vitamins), while other
substances actually can slow down or stop enzyme functionality (such as
sugar and alcohol).
** Please note that TerraVita does offer 15 capsules made from actual Papaya leaves.
A mentor of mine
told me that when he studied at Oxford University in England he was taught
that intelligence was not necessarily the search for the right answers,
but instead, the passion to find the right questions. After all my
research on this subject, my conclusion is that we ask the wrong question
when we ask what the "cure" for cancer is. This is as pointless as asking
for a "cure" for aging, or a "cure" for gravity.
What, then, is the
right question? Perhaps instead of "How do I try not to die?", it is, "How
should I live?" That's a question I would answer by advising you to eat
what your body needs to live (ideally, 11 servings of fresh vegetables per
day and four servings of fruit), not to consume cell-destroying things
(sugar, and processed foods), and to supplement your diet with papaya tea
to fight off the carcinogens you will inevitably encounter in this world.
If we could all spend our entire lives doing this, I believe our lives
would not only be considerably longer, but we could all keep cancer at
bay, just like the mice in the experiment mentioned earlier who were
administered enzymes prior to being injected with cancer and had a 100
percent survival rate.
Living healthier lifestyles to whatever
extent is feasible for each of us will, I'm convinced, greatly increase
our chances of being able to overcome the malignancies that will
periodically try to make inroads into our bodies, and to otherwise lead
healthier and happier lives. Getting into the habit of drinking papaya
leaf tea is certainly one of the easiest - and perhaps most effective -
things we can do along these lines.
This is something I would hope
you would encourage everyone you know to do as well: your parents, your
children, your friends, and hopefully, even your doctor.
- by
Virginia Robertson
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + +
All of our Papaya
Leaf products can be found here.
+ + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Third-Party
Research References:
(1)
www.drugdigest.org/DD/PrintablePages/herbMonograph/0,11475,552451,00
.html
(2)www.echotech.org/mambo/images/DocMan/PapayaLeafTN1.pdf
(3) cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/gonzalez/HealthProfessional
(4) Ibid
(5) Biser, Sam. Curing Cancer with Nutrition: The
use of diet and enzyme therapy to cure Cancer. Charlottesville, VA:
University of Natural Healing, Inc., 1994.
(6) Wald M, Olejar T,
Pouckova P, Zadinova M, Proteinases reduce metastatic dissemination and
increase survival time in C57B16 mice with the Lewis lung carcinoma. Life
Sci 1998, 63:L237-243
(7)
sigmaaldrich.com/Area_of_Interest/Biochemicals/Enzyme_Explorer
/Analytical_Enzymes/Papain.html"
(8) "Systemic Oral Enzymes in
Cancer Therapeutics," The Doctor's Prescription for Healthy Living, Vol. 4
, No. 6
(9)
healthguidance.org/entry/7226/1/What-Are-Systemic-Proteoly
tic-Enzymes-And-How-Can-You-Benefit-From-Them.html
(10) Francisco
Contreras, MD, Jorge Barroso-Aranda, M.D., Ph.D., and Daniel E. Kennedy,
"Dismantling Cancer," Interpacific Press
(11)
RejoiceInLife.com
(12) Ibid
(13) Harold Tietze, "Living Food
for Longer Life", Beekman Books Inc, 2001, p. 49
(14)
www.healthguidance.org/entry/7226/1/What-Are-Systemic-Proteolytic-Enzymes-A
nd-How-Can-You-Benefit-From-Them.html
(15) Ibid
(16)
gaia-movement.org/files/newsletter%20september%20small.pdf
(17)
rain-tree.com/papaya.htm
View products
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| | 14 total products | | | | |  |
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Tea
25 tea bags
11.42 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Tea
50 tea bags
Nature's Antacid and Digestive Aid in a Tea!
17.05 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Tea (Loose)
4 oz / 114 g
11.14 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Tea (Loose)
8 oz / 227 g
16.52 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf - 450 mg
100 capsules
15.16 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Powder
4 oz / 114 g
16.88 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Powder
1 oz / 28 g
9.30 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Cream
2 oz / 57 g
13.15 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Salve / Ointment
2 oz / 57 g
15.44 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Liquid Extract / Tincture (1:5) - Alcohol-Free
1 oz / 28 g
9.24 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Liquid Extract / Tincture (1:5) - Strawberry Flavored Alcohol-Free
1 oz / 28 g
9.24 US
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Enzymes can fight aging and early death. - Health - Papaya Leaf Liquid Extract / Tincture (1:5) - Mint Flavored Alcohol-Free
1 oz / 28 g
9.24 US
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